KIDNAPPED COWBOY (22 page)

Dalton zeroed in on the manila envelope Martinson held clutched in his hand.  Business no doubt.  He looked up, seeing a look of smugness etched into the older man’s face.

For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why his brother kept Alan Martinson on.  So what if he was good at what he did.  The man had the personality of a piss ant.  Grounds for firing if you asked him.

“What the hell does he want?” he muttered under his breath.

“I’ll go see.”  Caitlin started past him, but he caught her arm, stopping her.

“I’ll go.  I don’t want you anywhere near that...slimeball.” 
Especially in wet clothes.
Releasing her arm, he swam until his feet touched bottom and then waded out to the grassy bank to see what his brother’s henchman wanted.  He knew Martinson wasn’t thrilled by Brandon’s agreeing to keep Stoney Brook open.  This was one of the only times he could remember Brandon taking his side over Alan’s.  And he had to admit it felt damn good. 

“Alan,” he acknowledged with a nod of his wet head as he stepped from the water, but he made no move to offer his hand in greeting.

Neither did Martinson.  He merely sneered as he eyed Dalton from head to toe.  “Some things never change, I see.”

Dalton’s expression remained stoic.  “And that’s supposed to mean what exactly?”

“Nothing but fun and games for you.  That’s how it’s always been.  Isn’t that right?”

“How I run my life is no concern of yours.”

Martinson’s sneer remained intact.  “If I were your brother, I would have cut you out of my life a long time ago.”

Dalton glared down at him, his expression hard.  “You got some sorta problem with me, Martinson?”

“What I have,” the man replied stiffly, “is a problem with losing money.  And thanks to you and Miss Do-Good over there,” he nodded toward the water where Caitlin stood watching, “that’s exactly what’s happening.  This place could have brought us millions.”

Dalton raised a questioning brow.  “Us?”

“Your brother,” Martinson snapped.  “This little project here to ‘save the kids’ is costing him a fortune.”

“Money isn’t everything,” Dalton replied with a calmness he didn’t feel.  Inside he was wrestling with the urge to spring at Martinson.  “And that’s
Miss Myers
to you.  She’s in charge of running Stoney Brook and will be treated with the respect she deserves.”

Martinson snorted his contempt.  “I see how she runs this place.”  He did a sweep with his arm.  “Kids frolicking, fully dressed, in the lake when what they should be doing is something productive.  You can be sure your brother will hear all about it.”

“How
we
run this place is our business.”

“Now it’s we?  As if you give a damn about those kids.”

Dalton’s jaw clenched.  “I care.  And in case it’s slipped your mind, my brother turned control of Stoney Brook over to me for the summer.”

Martinson’s expression darkened at the reminder.  “A foolish decision if you ask me.”

“I didn’t.” 

He shook a finger at Dalton.  “Your brother’s wasting his money on those juvenile delinquents.”

It took every ounce of restraint he had for Dalton not to pound the man’s face into the ground right then and there.  Instead, Dalton stepped forward, forcing Martinson to take several stumbling steps backward.  “If I ever hear you refer to these kids that way again, I’ll personally stuff the words right back down your throat.”   

“Fine,” the older man grumbled.  “Why anyone would wanna waste their time on them,” he said, glaring at the teens, “is beyond me.”

“I’d rather spend every minute of my day with these kids then five minutes with a man like you.”  He leaned forward, towering over the much shorter Martinson.  “A man who goes around acting like he’s got a stick shoved up his ass.”

Alan stiffened and then blew out a huff of air as he shoved the envelope he was holding into Dalton’s wet shirtfront.  “Here are some forms your brother needs you to sign.  A waste of paperwork if you ask me.  You and I both know you have no intention of sticking around much longer.  Isn’t that right?”

What he did or didn’t do was none of Alan’s business.  He’d be damned if he’d respond to Alan’s provoking comment.  Even to set him straight. 

Martinson looked past him to Caitlin.  “Something you’d be wise to keep in mind, Miss Myers.”  That said, he turned and stomped away.

“Bastard,” Dalton muttered under his breath as his brother’s man disappeared into the woods.

“Swim time’s over,” Caitlin announced behind him.  “There’s work back at camp to be done.”

Dalton turned, her troubled gaze meeting his as she stepped from the lake.  Head held high, she walked past him, her wet clothes swishing as she went. 

“Caitlin,” he called after her.

“Are you really leaving?” one of the girls asked as the group started for the trail in the woods.

Leah hushed the teen, her anxious gaze darting back and forth between Dalton’s frowning face and Caitlin’s rapidly departing form.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said with a conviction he hadn’t felt in a very long time.  Not when he’d finally found what he’d been searching for all his life.  Now he just had to find some way to convince Caitlin of that.

*              *              *

The drive back to the family ranch gave Dalton a lot of time to think.  And Lord knew he had a lot to think about.  In the beginning, he’d been furious with his brother for forcing him into helping run Stoney Brook.  He recalled thinking that his calling in life was to work with horses, not a bunch of snot-nosed kids.  That he had ever felt that way ate him up inside.  He’d judged those kids long before he’d ever met them.  And he was man enough to admit he’d been wrong.

Sure, the teens were troubled.  And each and every one of them had faults.  But then who didn’t?  And they sure as hell weren’t the social wastes Martinson made them out to be.  Not by a long shot.

Caitlin’s counseling sessions seemed to be working wonders with the teens.  They were starting to open up to her, something he never expected to happen when he first met the angry, closed-off-to-the-world youths.  With the exception of the prank they had pulled on him that morning, their behavior had taken a noticeable turn for the better.

Now if he could just get back in Caitlin’s good graces.  She had done everything she could to avoid him after returning from the lake.  Trust was an issue for her and Martinson’s driving it home that he wasn’t the kind of man who could be counted on to stick around had stirred up old insecurities.  But he had no intention of going anywhere and he was going to make certain she knew that.  More importantly, that she believed it.  So he would treat her as he would a skittish horse.  With gentleness and patience. 

He turned off the main road, passing under the weathered sign of the Three B’s Ranch.  His home.  That particular thought took him by surprise.  When was the last time he’d thought of this place as
home
?  For the life of him, Dalton couldn’t remember.  It had taken one headstrong female and a bunch of rag-tag teens to make him see his own life more clearly.

He pulled up to the house and cut the engine.  Instead of getting out, he sat back in the seat, letting his gaze sweep the land around him.  He had to give Brandon credit.  He’d done one hell of a job managing the place on his own.  Of course, his brother had sacrificed his own personal life in the process.  At least, that’s what he’d been told by a few of Brandon’s friends that night at the bar.  The night Caitlin chose to put her plan into action and had ended up with him instead. 

He might not have been too pleased at the time, but he was damn glad now that fate had intervened with Caitlin’s plan that night.  What if it had been Brandon she had kidnapped instead?  Brandon that she had ended up spending time alone with in the cabin during that storm.  Would she have changed his brother’s life as she had his?

As ridiculous as it seemed, a surge of jealousy slid through him.  But he couldn’t help himself.  Caitlin was his.  She just hadn’t accepted it yet.  His brother would have to find his own special woman.  And, if fate was still in a jesting mood, that woman might just find his brother.  Just as Caitlin had found him.

Dalton pulled off his hat and placed it onto the seat beside him.  Then, shoving his keys into one of the damp pockets of his jeans opened the door and stepped down from the truck.

He straightened with a grimace.  Wet jeans were not the most comfortable thing for a man to move around in.  He made his way toward the house, wanting to change out of his lake-drenched clothes before he turned into a six-foot-two-inch prune.

The door was unlocked much to his relief, seeing as how his house key was lodged deep in his clinging pants pocket.  It would be a task and a half to get his hand into the wet denim to retrieve it.

Stepping inside, he headed for the stairs at the far end of the hallway.

“Dalton?” a deep voice called out from his brother’s office as he passed by.

Stopping, he took a step back, looking into the room.  Brandon sat behind his desk, his dark brow arched.

“I wondered what all that swishing was coming up the hallway.”  The corners of his mouth twitched as he took in Dalton’s wet clothes.  “You get caught in a rainstorm I wasn’t aware came through?”

“Nope.”  Dalton looked down at his wet clothes.  “I went for a swim in the lake.”

His brother looked up at him with one of those ‘have you gone nuts’ kind of looks.  And the answer to his unspoken question would be a resounding yes.  He was.  Nuts about Caitlin. 

Brandon’s eyes raked over him.  “You went for a swim in your clothes?”

He wasn’t about to explain his reason for jumping into the lake.  The boys had pulled a real good one on him.  But he knew Brandon and his brother would turn it around to his and Caitlin not having control over the teens.  So he settled for, “It wasn’t planned.”

Brandon eyed the puddle of water pooling at Dalton’s feet.  “Why do I get the feeling this has something to do with Miss Myers?”

He frowned at the assumption.  Just because she’d taken down the trellis.

His brother gave a husky laugh.  “You can’t blame me for wondering.  Things tend to happen when she’s around.  And how do you, of all people, just happen to
fall
into a lake?  You don’t even fall off stomping, snorting bulls.”

“Ah, hell,” he muttered.  “So I didn’t fall.  I went in on purpose.”

“Alone?”

“Caitlin and the kids went in, too.”

“All fully clothed?”

“Damn it, Brandon, let it go.”

His brother tucked his hands behind his head with a widening grin.  “Is there something going on between you and Miss Myers?”

“We work together.”

“Beyond work,” he prompted.

His brother was like a dog with a bone.  And why was he grinning?  This was no joke.  The relationship he had with Caitlin was real. 

“Oh, hell,” Brandon groaned.  “Another female seduced by Dalton Barnes’
charm
.  Not that I should be surprised.  You’ve always liked females with a little sass.  And she’s pretty easy on the eyes if a man has a thing for petite little firecrackers.”

“You just keep your eyes off her,” Dalton ground out.

A slight smile edged his brother’s lips.  “You really like this woman.”

“What’s not to like?”

“Other than she tends to wreak havoc wherever she goes?”

“It keeps things interesting,” he said, his smile returning.  “And before we get into this any further, I need to go peel outta these wet clothes before I chafe.  Are you gonna be here for a while?”

His brother nodded.  “For the rest of the afternoon.”

“Good, because there’s something I wanted to talk to you about before heading back out to the retreat.”

“Sounds serious.”

He had no idea.

*              *              *

“Here’s the insurance information you needed filled out.”  Dalton tossed the envelope Alan had given him onto his brother’s desk.  After he’d showered and changed, he’d taken a few minutes to go over the paperwork.  The sooner Caitlin had coverage the better with her penchant for risking life and limb for causes near and dear to her heart.

His brother reached for the envelope.  “You do realize Miss Myers will have to agree to remain under our employ even after the summer session at the retreat is over for us to be able to offer her coverage.”

“She will,” Dalton said, having no doubt.  “Once she hears about the plan I ran by you to hold several smaller retreats throughout the year you can bet she’ll be on board.”

“Before you put this all in motion, you’d best think long and hard.”

“I’ve thought about this – a lot,” he told Brandon.

His brother didn’t look convinced.  “I mean it, Dalton.  I know you.  As soon as something else lights a fire under your ass, you’ll be off chasing after it.”

“The man I used to be would have,” he admitted.  But then that was the only man his brother had ever known.  “I’m not that man anymore.”

His brother leaned forward in his chair, absently fingering the clasp on the back of the envelope.  “I’ve spent years shouldering
your
responsibilities here.  I’ll be damn if I’m gonna step in when you get bored and take off in search of your next adventure.  You start this, you’re gonna see it through.”

He nodded, determined.  “I intend to.  What man in his right mind would go off chasing after meaningless dreams when he’s found the real thing here?”   

“Caitlin?”

He nodded, unable to keep the grin from his face.  “She’s a very big part of my decision to stick around and put down roots.”

“Well, I’ll be damned.”  His brother’s voice held the gravelly pitch of a man fighting off a sudden onslaught of emotion.  “I never thought I’d hear those words from you.” 

Dalton chuckled.  “You and me both.”  Somewhere along the way that summer things had begun to change between him and his brother.  Their ability to communicate openly and respect each other’s opinions, even when they disagreed, the biggest part of that change.  That wasn’t saying there still weren’t fences to mend between them.  He’d have to work hard to prove himself and earn his brother’s trust.  Caitlin’s as well.  Failure was not an option.